Paul Tibbets, the pilot who flew the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, has died at age 92: he said he had no regrets.
Paul W. Tibbets, the pilot of the B-29 bomber, christened the "Enola Gay," that unleashed the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II, has died this week at the age of 92.
Tibbets had grown so tired of criticism over his role in the bombing that he requested there be no memorial service or headstone for his grave because he didn’t want his family to suffer if the location became a target of protestors.
"I’m not proud that I killed 80,000 people (the number of immediate casualties from the blast), but I’m proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did," said Tibbets to reporters during an interview in 1975.
Tibbets was 30 years old in August of 1945, serving as a colonel in the Army Air Corps. He had been attending medical school before the war but decided to enlist, interrupting his studies. He christened the b-29 bomber the "Enola Gay," after his mother. The bomb, named "Little Boy," killed 80,000 people instantly on August 6th, 1945. By the end of 1945, another 60,000 people were dead from radiation sickness or would die shortly thereafter. Almost half of the city’s population of 350,000 people eventually died as a result of the atomic bomb.
Three days after the bomb was dropped, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing 80,000 people. The bombings crippled Japan, and on August 15th Japan surrendered to the Allies.
Asked many times whether he felt regret over his role in the atomic bombing, Tibbets always maintained that he was simply doing his job.
"What they needed was someone who could do this and not flinch—and that was me," said Tibbets, according to author Bob Greene, who wrote Tibbets’ biography, Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.
Added his granddaughter, Kia Tibbets, to reporters, "They asked him to serve his country and he did."
However, shortly after the bombing, Tibbets had this to say: "If Dante had been with us on the plane, he would have been terrified. The city we had seen so clearly in the sunlight a few minutes before was now an ugly smudge. It had completely disappeared under this awful blanket of smoke and fire."
Tibbets retired from the air force in 1966, and became the president of Executive Jet Aviation, an air-taxi service, until his retirement in 1985.
Takashi Mukai, leader of the Japanese Congress Against A- and H-Bombs, told the press, "What Mr. Tibbets did should never be forgiven. His actions led to the indiscriminate killing of so many, from the elderly to young children."
Mukai added, "Nevertheless, I would like to express my condolences to his family, and pray for his soul. What's important now is that we move toward a world free of nuclear weapons."
